www.plasticker.de

The customers of RIGK GmbH/Germany can look forward to constant or even decreasing fees for 2011, depending on the plastic packaging to be returned and recovered. Accordingly, fees for 2011 have been reduced by 10 Euros per tonne for PE and PP plastic sheet sacks, as classified by categories 1 to 6 (see table 1), as well as for bigbags (FIBC); by 15 Euro per tonne for combined plastic packaging; and by up to 16 Euros per tonne for rigid plastic packaging. This corresponds to a reduction in prices of between 4 and 16 percent. The fees for the RIGK-G-SYSTEM, relating to the return and recovery of plastic packaging for hazardous products (table 2), will remain unchanged at their 2010 levels, as will the minimum annual fees for small quantities for both the RIGK- and the RIGK-G-SYSTEMs.

"As well as combating the effects of the economic crisis during the first quarter of 2010, ongoing increases in energy and related transportation costs provided a further major financial challenge over the following months, says RIGK's CEO Markus Dambeck. "The fact that, despite all of this, we are able to provide our customers with such positive news about our fees is largely down to our responsible use of resources as well as the ongoing success of our concept, as reflected by a further increase in the number of licensees for our systems."

Whilst the fees for the RIGK-G-SYSTEM are due to remain constant, major administrative changes will be introduced to this field at the start of 2011. From now on, the GHS hazard symbols (Globally Harmonized System for the classification and labelling of chemicals), which have been mandatory for substances since December 2010 and will become mandatory for mixed substances as from June 2015, may be used in parallel to the hazard symbols of the German Gefahrstoffverordnung (Ordinance on Hazardous Substances). Chart 1 correlates both systems of symbols to the reprocessing groups A and B of the RIGK-G-SYSTEM.

RIGK GmbH (www.rigk.de), founded in 1992, organizes for its licensees (bottlers, retailers and importers) the return of used packaging, free of remnants, from German customers and ensures a safe and sustainable recovery process. The company's services are available to industrial and commercial packaging of non hazardous (RIGK-SYSTEM) as well as hazardous products (RIGK-G-SYSTEM). The portfolio of RIGK's services also covers RIGK-PICKUP (the free-of-charge collection of packaging, free of remnants, at industrial and commercial end users) and the return systems for agricultural users, including PAMIRA (pesticide packaging), BEIZE (seed dressing agent packaging), and PELLE (agriculture films). Beyond this the company offers consulting services for the development of application-specific return and recovery concepts. RIGK's Romanian subsidiary (www.rigk.ro) provides similar return and recovery services for used packaging in Romania. The shareholders of RIGK GmbH are notable polymer and packaging producers.